WRAPPED IN BLACK

Thirteen Tales of Witches and the Occult

STORIES I TELL TO GIRLS by Michael Williams

“I’m not trying to pry, Auntie Ann,” Maria said to the crone of the Book People, lying badly and showing the disregard for it of young people everywhere. “But why don’t you ever tell us stories about your life?” She asked it with that infuriating innocence of youth, the way a child can go straight to the heart of the hidden.
Lorraine, high priestess of the Book People, froze at the half-open library door.
Auntie Ann as usual said nothing. Lorraine had heard Auntie Ann speak many times but for a specific reason: the older woman was trying to pass on what she had learned in her many years of crafting magic, preparing Lorraine for when she would become the coven’s crone.
That was what the Book People were: a coven working magic through the written word. As the wheel of the year turned they gathered together, trespassing at some library or another to reach into the vast expanse of condensed intention; to make meaning out of the cast dice of a billion words. They broke the law to do their work because magic often requires a sacrifice. The Book People set their own respectability before the gods as an offering they were prepared to burn.
This night, however – Halloween, or Samhain, or any number of other names –the Book People were on their own turf: a little branch library near the tiny town of Pittsboro. Technically they were trespassing there, too, but they had found a key, left out as though just for them, and they took it as a special kind of blessing.
“Is something wrong with the door?” Warren was the scribe, recording their rituals in a great tome he carried.
“No,” Lorraine said. “Just… thought I heard something.” Maria asking Auntie Ann about her past, tonight – this night, when the dead were close enough to touch with the lightest of effort… A chill ran up Lorraine’s spine. Dressed in her usual array of spandex-cotton blends, Lorraine looked the part of the mother of the group, ready to cheer on a soccer league or pilot a mini-van straight into outer space. She felt ice in her heart, though. Maria, the energetic young maiden, had a way of being the first one to stumble onto something and last to understand its significance.
“I just feel like we could learn a lot from you,” Maria said. She smiled, but it was coy.
Auntie Ann’s voice cracked when she spoke, like a piano that hasn’t been played in too long. “I try not to dwell on what’s dead and gone. It has a way of showing back up if it thinks it’s been invited.”
Maria’s eyes lit up with the flame of curiosity almost rewarded. “Oh, but please? Please tell us one story? Just one?” Maria’s pleading eyes turned to Lorraine for just a second. “I bet you’ve told Lorraine all kinds of stories.”
“Oh, girl.” Auntie Ann let out a great big breath with a lot of years behind it. “There are stories I tell to women,” she said, “And stories I tell to girls.” She smiled, though. “And you are still a girl.”

Read the entire story in

WRAPPED IN BLACK: Thirteen Tales of Witches and the Occult

RELEASE DATE: October 18, 2014

Michael G. Williams is a native of the Appalachian Mountains and grew up near Asheville, North Carolina. He describes his writing as wry horror or suburban fantasy: stories told from the perspectives of vampires, unconventional investigators, magicians and hackers who live in the places so many of us also call home. Michael is also an avid athlete, a gamer and a brother in St. Anthony Hall and Mu Beta Psi. You can find him here: http://www.robustmcmanlypants.org/perishables/ and here: https://www.facebook.com/perishables.novel

CLOSED

Sekhmet Press LLC is pleased to announce our next anthology in the successful WRAPPED series!

COMING MARCH 2014

WRAPPED IN WHITE

Thirteen Tales of Spectres, Ghosts, and Spirits

Here is your chance to be a WRAPPED contributor!

We are very excited to have several up-and-coming authors featured in this anthology and we look forward to filling the other available slots through open-call submissions. You may submit your story as an attachment to sekhmetpress@gmail.com between December 26, 2013 and January 10, 2014. Remaining contributors will be announced by February 2. Expected release date for Wrapped in White is March 2014.

Original stories only please. No reprints.

Any submissions or inquiries sent anywhere other than sekhmetpress@gmail.com will be deleted. Submissions received before or after open call dates will be deleted.

Stories should range from 4,000 to 6,000 words.

In your email, make sure to include your full name, the title of the work you are submitting, and a word count.

A short Bio will be requested upon acceptance of story.

Please spend time proofing and editing your submissions before sending them. Submissions with incorrect grammar, misspellings or formatting will be automatically excluded from the review process. Those submissions that are accepted must be open to receiving minor editorial corrections.

If your story is chosen, payment includes $25 within 30 days of acceptance/signed contract and one print copy of WRAPPED IN WHITE within 90 days of publication. Publisher will retain first worldwide publication rights for one year from publication date.

Good luck

Submission Guidelines:

TITLEAuthor NameWord counte-mail address

12pt Garamond or equivalent

Single Spaced

Do not use TAB key. New paragraphs should be formatted with a 0.3 indent.

Do not use symbols such as # or * between sections. A single blank space is sufficient.

Presents

“Wrapped in Red is an anthology that includes not one or two great stories, but all thirteen stories in this collection are strong and well written. These vampires are old school, without a bit of sparkling in sight, for which I was truly grateful. From authors I love (i.e., Billie Sue Mosiman, Patrick Green, Suzi M and Chantal Noordeloos) to authors I’ve never read before, I enjoyed every story in this book.

Just plain good old fashioned horror, well written, well edited and worth a read. When I was asked to review this by the publisher, I wasn’t really sure. But in the end, I sat down and read the entire collection in a day, so if that isn’t a collection worth a 5 star rating, I’m not sure what is.” Kat Yares Vine™ Voice reviewer.